"Rhinosaurs!" Johnny shouted, pointing. "Golly, a whole herd of them!" There were more than thirty of the huge grey-blue saurians. Even at that distance they could hear the low thunder of the gigantic hooves. The beasts stayed close to the brush, knocking down small trees as they came. Johnny knew that heavy ato-tubes were trained on the rhinosaurs from the guard towers. The guards in the gate towers would have a full view of them. Johnny also knew that unless the beasts began to charge the walls, the guards would not fire. If they did, the whole herd might charge. Topped as they were with electric wires, the heavy fifty-foot high walls would be hard to breach. But rhinosaurs had smashed those walls once—before they were thickened and electrified.
"Remember when they attacked and killed a lot of colonists?"
"I remember," Baba clicked. "Your people killed them, too. These straps...."
Johnny nodded. Because it was made of the skin of an animal the colonists had killed, he had had a hard time getting Baba to wear that harness.
"Let's go!" Johnny said.
This time the going was not so hard for Johnny, though they climbed much farther before he and Baba could rest. The next ledge they reached was not large enough to let them sit. Baba had to hang to the rock, but it didn't seem to tire him.
Three more rests, and slowly but surely they were reaching the top. At the last rest Baba clicked to Johnny in warning.
"The rock is getting softer. If my claws tear away from the rock, just relax and fall with me. I'll grab again further down."
"All right," he said.
Johnny didn't dare look down. He had been climbing with Baba since he was three, but never this high before.